The Fearless King (The Kings #2)(60)
She barely waited for their footsteps to fade before she pushed to her feet. “What the hell was that about?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. I saw her car, Jo—it looks like a crumpled Coke can. There’s no way another vehicle should have been able to do that damage and drive off before the police arrived. It doesn’t make any fucking sense.”
She ran her hands through her hair. “They have to know this was intentional—that she was targeted. That changes this from a simple hit-and-run into attempted murder. Why aren’t they doing anything about it?”
“You know why.” Bellamy leaned his head against the wall behind his chair and closed his eyes. “The cops we talked to right after we got here were different ones, and they seemed much more willing to help find answers. Strange coincidence, them being reassigned and those two assholes ending up with a case they’re all too eager to close.”
“You don’t know they were reassigned.” He opened one eye and pinned her with a look, and she sighed. “Okay, I’m reaching. You can’t honestly think Elliott got to them.”
“Don’t be naive, Jo.” This from Bellamy. He stretched out his legs. “The Bancrofts are just as powerful as the Kings.”
Damn it. Damn it. She paced from one side of the room to the other. “There’s got to be something we can do, someone we can go to.”
“It won’t work.”
She spun on Anderson. “How can you know? You haven’t even tried.”
She stared at her brothers, the two steady beacons in her life. They were crumpling around her. Anderson might cover it up better, but it was there in the tightness around his mouth and the way his eyes seemed to see something a thousand miles away. He was fighting for control, to be the calm leader that he knew they needed…and he was failing. Bellamy wasn’t even trying to keep a steady face, his frustration and anger riding close to the surface, but then he’d always been closer to Eliza than the other two.
Her brothers needed her.
They needed someone to step up and relieve the burden, at least for a little while.
She never would have considered it would be her. She was the weak link, the one who spent the majority of this mess trying not to fall to pieces while everyone else stood strong.
She gave her brothers what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’m going to go see if I can track down some information and some coffee. Just…hang in there. She got through surgery. Eliza is tougher than anyone gives her credit for. She’ll be okay.” The words felt like a lie, but neither of them called her on it.
None of the nurses had any information for her, so she collected the coffee and headed back to the waiting room. She barely made it into the room when the surgeon appeared in the doorway. He was an older black man, his short hair gone silver and laugh lines bracketing his mouth. He wasn’t laughing now. “You’re Eliza King’s family?”
“Yes.” Journey stepped forward, aware of Anderson and Bellamy standing and moving to either side of her. “Is our sister okay?”
“She came through surgery just fine, and she’s awake.” He hesitated. “She doesn’t want to see you—any of you.”
*
Frank swung by the apartment he kept in the city long enough to shower and change, and then he headed to the office. He’d already asked Mateo to pull the traffic cameras before they’d taken off, so there should be answers by now. It was a struggle to focus on the facts and not think about the lost and determined look on Journey’s face when he’d left her in front of the hospital. She wanted to go in alone and he respected her choice—but that didn’t mean he liked it. Ethan and José were already on their way to the hospital to ensure nothing went sideways, though he doubted Elliott would be so blunt.
Then again, he’d never expected the man to go after his youngest daughter, either.
Make no assumptions. We don’t know what happened yet.
Maybe not in facts, but he knew what his gut said—Elliott was somehow responsible for Eliza’s accident. Whether it was to bring Journey back to Houston or for some other reason remained to be seen, but the timing was too neat to be coincidental. Journey takes Frank and bolts out of Elliott’s reach and, within twenty-four hours, a terrible accident befalls one of her siblings, forcing her to return. Not only that, but she wouldn’t be thinking clearly because she was worried about her sister.
What better time to strike?
It’s what Frank would do, though he never had to stoop to harming people to get what he wanted. Not physically, at least. There were so many more effective ways to hamstring a person without lifting a hand. Obviously, Elliott had never learned that particular lesson.
He took the steps two at a time, heading for Mateo’s office. Something about this situation had bothered him from the beginning. Elliott was crafty—there was no denying that—but why not make his move years ago if he was really after the power?
Because Lydia King was still in Houston. Even with the power of the Bancrofts behind him, only a fool would underestimate that woman.
Mateo looked up as Frank walked in, his expression severe. “Your girl has gotten herself into a vipers’ nest by accident of birth, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.” He turned his monitor so Frank could watch the grainy black-and-white video he’d already queued up. It showed a dark sedan sitting at a stoplight. The light turned and the car started forward, right into the path of an SUV. The impact crumpled the car in on itself as the SUV pushed it through the intersection and out of view of the camera.